Hodie est a.d.  VII Kal. Sextilies (Augustas) 2772 AUC ~  25 Hekatombaion in the third year of the 699th Olympiad

In the News

• 2,300-year-old structure unveiled in northern city – Daily Sabah 

In Case You Missed It

• Volcanologists say archeologists are hogging study of Pompeii all to themselves | CBC Radio 

Fresh Bloggery

• The Ancient Economy | Summertime Fragments 
• Andromache’s Sons With Neoptolemos – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE 
• Changing Tack: Cicero on Ends and Means in Politics – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE 
• The column of Arcadius – a detailed pre-1700 drawing – Roger Pearse 

Fresh Podcasts

• Sermo Raedarius 98 | Sermones Raedarii 

Sermo Raedarius 98: de scholis parandis sine bonis libris pars altera: quid agendum sit de locis iam bene notis.

• ‎The Forum: The Spartans: Ancient Greece’s fighting machine 

For over two and a half thousand years the Ancient Greek Spartans have been known for their military might, discipline and self-sacrifice. Recent popular culture has portrayed them as the ultimate fearless warriors, especially ‘the 300’ Spartans who fought to the death at Thermopylae. But where does this image come from, and what do we really know about Spartan society and the peculiar utopia it tried to create? The city-state of Sparta has been admired for its stability, frugality, and the unusual social and sexual freedom of its women. But Sparta was also famous for its brutality towards its huge slave population, its authoritarian rule, and its policy of racial purity and eugenics that would eventually prove its undoing

Book Reviews

• [BMCR] Pieter B. Hartog, Pesher and Hypomnema: A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, 121. 
• [BMCR] Frank Vermeulen, From the Mountains to the Sea: The Roman Colonisation and Urbanisation of Central Adriatic Italy. BABESCH Supplement, 30. 
• [BMCR] Angelos Chaniotis (ed.), La Nuit: imaginaire et réalités nocturnes dans le monde gréco-romain. Entretiens sur l’antiquité classique, 64. 
• [BMCR] D. Graham J. Shipley, The Early Hellenistic Peloponnese: Politics, Economies, and Networks 338-197 BC.. 
• [BMCR] Lynn Meskell, A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace. 
• [BMCR] Marieke Dhont, Style and Context of Old Greek Job. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 183.

Dramatic Receptions

• Updated ancient Greek play at Genesius Guild is “an irreverent romp” | Entertainment | qconline.com 
• Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne Will Star in MEDEA at BAM 
• Horrible Histories film: Rotten Romans and all you need to know about the film – CBBC Newsround 
• Playwright Tom Stoppard On The World Premiere Of ‘Penelope’ 

Professional Matters

• WRITING THE EMBODIED EXPERIENCE IN IMPERIAL ECPHRASIS 
• [CFP] Homer in the Renaissance – Renaissance Society of America 
• [CFP] Classical Origins of Renaissance Aesthetics – Renaissance Society of America 

Alia

• [Museum] Mysterious Etruscan civilization unveiled 

‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

• Homeromanteion | Online Homeric Oracle
• Sortes Virgilianae (English)
• Sortes Virgilianae (Latin)
• Consult the Oracle at UCL

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If there is any thunder today, after abundant crops, there will be famine. [apologies; I was a day ahead yesterday; yesterday should have been about bad things happening to young people and disease hitting crops]

… adapted from the translation of:

Jean MacIntosh Turfa, The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar, in Nancy Thomson de Grummond and Erika Simon (eds.), The Religion of the Etruscans. University of Texas Press, 2006. (Kindle edition)